3 Stocks I'm Buying (September 2025)

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I don’t know about you, but August was an absolute barn burner for my portfolio. Between August 1st and September 1st, my portfolio gained +12.50%. In fact, things were going so well that I dabbled in a little trading — buying 200 shares of Aflac for $100.85 each and then selling them once the stock rocketed up to $106 per share.

Am I saying all this to brag?

Yes.

Am I also saying this to plug the paid newsletter, which covered Aflac stock when it was super cheap and poised for a major rebound?

Yes.

But also, I want to highlight a problem…

The stocks I usually pick are cheap, quality businesses that are undervalued compared to the general market.

Since August, many of these stocks are up considerably. Penske Automotive Group, which I bought last month, is up more than +10% in 30 days. Fastenal Company, which I bought in July, is up +15% since then. And The Procter & Gamble Company, which I bought in August, is up… +0.67%.

Hey, they can’t all be winners.

Rather than buying more Procter & Gamble or loading up on water utility firm Artesian Resources Corporation, which is kind of cheap right now, I’m focusing on a wide-moat business that could get significantly wider.

Plus, I’m buying two stocks that both cost less than $20 per share — one of which is a market-beating high-yielder!

Let’s start with the main attraction…

Union Pacific Corporation ($UNP)

Union Pacific Corporation is so old that Hollywood was producing historical period piece dramas about the company way back in 1939.

The company operates a railroad network in in 23 western states. And, Union Pacific has a near-duopoly on railway freight west of the Mississippi River. When it comes to wide-moat businesses, it doesn’t get much wider than this one.

Here’s why…

Railways are the most effective way to ship goods on land. The average railcar carries between 240,000 and 260,000 pounds of inventory. Trucks, airplanes, and drones cannot carry the same quantity of goods. And many commodity products, like iron ore or wheat, would be too expensive to ship via airplane or drone.

Union Pacific Corporation is one of the only two rail businesses that can ship goods around the Western United States.

This has made the business an incredibly safe and profitable long-term investment.

Union Pacific Corporation has been in business since 1862, predating the American Civil War. And the company has paid dividends every year for 126 years.

Better still, Union Pacific could see its corporate moat getting wider. The firm is in talks to buy Norfolk Southern Corporation, a railway which owns and operates the most extensive rail network in the eastern United States. This acquisition would expand Union Pacific’s operations across almost the entire continental United States.

If this acquisition is successful, Union Pacific Corporation will be even larger than it is now — potentially leading to a higher share price and faster dividend growth.

If the acquisition fails, Union Pacific Corporation is still a quality corporation with a wide-moat, 126 years of uninterrupted dividend payments, and a decently high 10-year average annual total return of 12.63%. The stock currently offers a 2.47% starting dividend yield with a 5-year compound annual dividend growth rate of 6.83% and a payout ratio of less than 50%.

I’d like to build a fairly large position in this business as a long-term “buy and hold forever” stock.

MDU Resources Group, Inc. ($MDU)

A boring utility stock nobody cares about that also slashed its dividend in 2023?

MDU Resources Group, Inc. isn’t a particularly interesting or exciting business. Truth be told, I could have easily swapped this firm with mobile home REIT UMH Properties, Inc. ($UMH) which has a similar valuation while paying a slightly higher starting yield.

So why is MDU Resources Group on today’s list?

Simple. The company recently raised its dividend by 7.7%.

MDU Resources Group, Inc. is a regulated utility firm that provides natural gas and electric utility services to low population, rural states including: Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho, and Wyoming.

The company has been in business since 1924. And, MDU Resources has paid a dividend every year for the past 87 years.

Over time, this business expanded its operations and eventually got involved in the construction industry as well as the aggregate business. Basically, they diversified into many different niches and this slowed the firm down.

For many years, MDU Resources would raise their dividend by a paltry 2%.

But recently, the company spun-off both the construction firm and the aggregate business. And while this lowered the stock’s dividend payouts, MDU Resources has been rapidly rebuilding its distributions.

In 2024, MDU Resources hiked its dividend by 4%. And this August, the company announced a 7.7% dividend increase.

With a price to earnings ratio of 16.90 and a starting yield of 3.44%, this is a reasonably priced utility stock that could see more inflation-beating dividend growth in the coming years.

Additionally, with the spin-offs factored-in, MDU Resources has actually performed surprisingly well — delivering a 10-year average annual total return of 13.17%.

This isn’t a super exciting stock. But it is a dependable income investment that’s paid nonstop dividends for almost 90 years.

And with the company currently trading for $16.29 per share, I’m happy to build a “house money” position using money from cash back credit cards as well as the gains from that Aflac trade mentioned earlier.

Vale S.A. ($VALE)

If I told you that a Brazilian mining company delivered market-beating returns over the past decade, you’d probably think I was either joking or referring to some ultra-obscure micro cap stock that made a one-time windfall discovery.

But I’m not.

Vale S.A. is a multibillion dollar business that dates all the way back to 1942. The company is a leading producer of iron ore, pellets, and nickel. And, Vale S.A. also mines for copper, gold, silver, and cobalt.

This is a stock that I’ve known about for years, but never really investigated because I assumed the company performed poorly.

My mistake.

Vale S.A. is a market-beater.

With dividends reinvested, the company delivered a 10-year average annual total return of 15.38%.

Yet Vale still remains cheap while paying a high starting yield.

The company currently trades at a price to earnings ratio of 6.01. It is also a high-yield stock paying a 7.83% starting dividend.

And between Vale’s semi-annual dividend payments, as well as special distributions, the firm has delivered an inflation-beating 5-year compound annual dividend growth rate of 7.40%.

This is a very cheap, high-yield business trading at a single-digit PE ratio with a share price of $10.28. And while this isn’t the typical investment I make, I like Vale and am happy buying shares for their enormous starting yield and “hard asset” backed commodity business operations.

And if commodity prices boom again — something that often happens in inflationary environments like the one experts predict will occur if the Federal Reserve slashes interest rates — Vale could see its stock price retrace $15 - $20 per share. This is where the company was trading during the mini commodity boom of 2021. And if that happened, I’d be happy to sell my position for a major gain.

Like Union Pacific Corporation, this is a “Heads I win, tails I win even bigger” situation.

Investors get a high starting yield, plus the potential for major gains during the next commodity cycle.

Conclusion

Legacy, wide-moat businesses making major acquisitions that could expand their moat even wider. Cheap utility firms accelerating their dividend growth. High-yield commodity leaders with dirt cheap valuations…

Markets may be at or near their all-time highs, but this doesn’t mean that there aren’t good investments out there.

Union Pacific Corporation, MDU Resources, and Vale S.A. are all stocks that I’m very happy to buy and hold for the long-term. Additionally, both Union Pacific and Vale have possible catalysts that could drive their share prices even higher — giving these firms built-in growth potential.

And even if these catalysts don’t pan out, all three firms still offer dependable, quality dividend income.

The Key to a $1.3 Trillion Opportunity

A new trend in real estate is making the most expensive properties obtainable. It’s called co-ownership, and it’s revolutionizing the $1.3T vacation home market.

The company leading the trend? Pacaso. Created by the founder behind a $120M prior exit, Pacaso turns underutilized luxury properties into fully-managed assets and makes them accessible to the broadest possible market.

The result? More than $1B in transactions and service fees, 2,000+ happy homeowners, and over $110m in gross profit to date for Pacaso.

With rapid international growth and 41% gross profit growth last year alone, Pacaso is hitting their stride. They even recently reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.

The same VCs that backed Uber, eBay, and Venmo also backed Pacaso. Join them as a Pacaso shareholder before the opportunity ends September 18.

Invest While You Still Can

_{Paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals.}

Disclaimer: This article is for entertainment purposes only. It is not financial advice, always do your own research.